If a picture is worth a thousand words, then an animation is worth so much more. Here are some simplified animations to explain various translocation scenarios which often arise in solid-state nanopore experiments. These animations were made during the course of my PhD at the Cees Dekker lab at TUDelft. Vectorized Flash SWF versions can be found here. Please contact me if you would like a copy of the Adobe Flash source files. Everything is released under a CC BY-SA licence. Enjoy!

DNA translocation through a solid-state nanopore:

Translocation of a DNA molecule with bound protein through a solid-state nanopore, assuming high-salt conditions (See Plesa et al.):

Recapturing a DNA molecule through a solid-state nanopore by alternating the electric field (ping-pong) (See Gershow & Golovchenko; Plesa et al.):

Translocation of membrane bound protein through a lipid-coated solid-state nanopore (See Yusko et al.):

Translocation of a DNA molecule with bound protein through a lipid-coated solid-state nanopore:

Translocation protein through a solid-state nanopore (See Plesa et al.):

Translocation of a DNA molecule containing a trefoil knot through a solid-state nanopore (knot region shaded magenta for clarity) (See Plesa et al.):

Behind the scenes. Most of these were made using stop motion animation of a small chain: